[vox] [fwd] [Lug-nuts] M$hit

[vox@lists.lugod.org]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2003 at 03:42:24PM -0800, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> Microsoft hopes community approach can take on Linux threat
> Not just about tea and pizza

Wait, wait...did I read that right?  TEA and pizza?  Who the fsck drinks
TEA with their pizza?  Coke, okay, although the powder gets all over
everything.  Juice, fine.  Water, no problemo.  Beer, works for me.
Tea?!?  Tea belongs with scones, crepes, and silver trays carried by
pretentious pug-faced windbags named Jeeves.  Not with pizza.

> By Peter Judge, Techworld
> Creative IT departments should use Windows not open source, says Microsoft,
> warning that Linux will become a tool of the grey consultants.

I get it -- alpha children wear gray, right?

> The Redmond-based company is aware that it is losing the PR war to Open
> Source software and has stepped up its efforts to woo enterprise users. The

With what?  "Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Licensing...now with
complementary vasoline and a free Trojan Magnum XL!"...?

> company has challenged the assumption that Linux is the natural successor to
> proprietary Unix systems. But it admits that a major plus point for Linux
> has been the community of ethos of Open Source.

Especially when compared to the lack of ethos, not to mention logos and 
pathos, provided by Microsoft.

> To counter this, Microsoft is now aiming to build a "community" round Windows 
> products, although it's unclear how it hopes to achieve this. The company 

Communities grow; they aren't 'built'.

> also intends to push Windows as a platform that gives IT managers more power, 
> as compared with traditional consultancy-led IT projects.

Note that word...'traditional'.  Open Source advocates typically carry
the 'empower the user' attitude with them in their consulting offers,
saving companies from high up-front coding costs through the use of
open, community-based technologies, and making their bread-and-beer
money by offering up something very alien in the American corporate
world...service.  Mainly because, as most OSS guys know, if they do
their jobs right, they will have to do very little in the way of
'Service and Support' work for their clients.

Just my eurocent-and-a-half.

-- 
Don Werve <donw@examen.com> (Unix System Administrator)

Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue,
Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn bork! bork! bork!